Roof paint for the real L11 Acton Shunter

[Broadway Clive]

Not a model, but the real thing that I'm helping to paint at Epping. It urgently needs its steel roof painting before the winter and all I can find is black coloured bitumen and rubberised roof paints. London Transport/Underground generally used a brown colour bitumen paint on steel stock and dark grey on others. Does anyone know a source for this?

 

A colleague has already visited the LTM at Acton and come back none the wiser, and a previous contributor on here who worked at Acton Works who might be able to advise seems not to visit this site too frequently. The Cravens Heritage Trains group which I have just joined and volunteered to help dont know either!

[Lord of Narnia]

The colour was known as Bauxite from memory and was a very thick coating used in the 1950s onwards.

 

Have you asked on district Dave?

[Xerces Fobe2]

Red Oxide car primer is a similar colour, however you might quite a few cans!

[GoingUnderground]

I would have thought that you want the same paint as was used on the roof of the 1938 Stock Heritage Set.

 

Try to follow that line of enquiry at the Museum, or try the Friends of the LT Museum, or the London Underground Railway Society (LURS)whose members include some very knowledgeable individuals.

[Broadway Clive]

Thanks guys. Yes, Keith I've followed your advice and left an enquiry with the LT Museum now - rather than relying on others. This should have been sorted out before but no one had thought about it. I volunteered and prepared the roof and theres nothing to protect it from rusting again, so if I cant get a quick answer it will have to be black for this winter. I Knew I should have stuck with models!

[GoingUnderground]

But you have stuck with a model, it's just that you're modelling at 1:1 scale.

 

The nearest that I've got to 1:1 Underground modelling is A60 luggage racks, a stop light from a siding, and some destination plates from 38 Tube stock.

 

At grave risk of teaching you to "suck eggs", don't forget that whilst the paint may keep the exterior from rusting, condensation and damp in the interior over the winter could undo all your hard work from below.

[Corbs]

You probably already know this, but I thought I'd mention it anyway just in case. A lot of people still apply 'red oxide' primer thinking that it helps protect against rust, but nowadays there is no difference in the make up between Red Oxide/Red Lead and ordinary primer. 

Primer is porous and will let moisture and rust through, so for proper protection then bitumen style as you have suggested may work, or a gloss/enamel layer.

We work on military vehicles and our chosen method now is primer, then gloss, then key the gloss and apply matt/satin on top of that.

A lot of other people put 'red oxide' on, then matt paint over the top, and are surprised when it starts to rust again shortly afterward.

 

If you are short on time then I would suggest priming it and painting a neutral/inoffensive gloss coat on top before the cold sets in. This can be keyed and repainted at a later date, but paint is cheaper than welding new sections in.

[Broadway Clive]

Thanks all, I got the answer today from a meeting with some ex LUL managers, one of whom by chance had a career going back to Acton Works and a spell in the blacksmiths shop. It was simply black bitumen paint that was applied then painted over with colour afterwards. This actually coincides with what I found in the gutters, but which no one could confirm was original or a post preservation addition. Thanks Corbs, its had a coat of Flag rust killer now, and indeed, as you say, some previous red oxide had flaked after just a few weeks. You are right in that it had been applied in the belief of being superior to a grey primer which would actually have been a better undercoat for the top coat.